Happy Wednesday TSJ Peeps!
Have you ever been “spoken to” by what seems to be God right “out of the blue?” Not with audible voices perhaps, but with a wise message that is so basic and relevant for you at that moment, it hits you between the eyes and wakes you right up for a bit?
I often wonder how God talks with us. I think there are many ways.
But so often I wish I knew clearly what is divine and what is some mixture of imagination and programming that seems to come along with having highly evolved brains! I am convinced though, t God often comes through the voice of children. Of course they too reflect what they have heard in the world around them, but often the way they speak is so simple, straight forward, and “right on” it can capture our attention.
Solomon (of TSJ fame) often speaks in short, child-like ways to deliver a message I need to hear. And he often encourages me to listen to the simple messages when I start to get all tangled up in worry, fear, or doubt.
So that is why I am writing a blog this morning. I was going to have Solomon tell you I am taking time out. Some call it a “stay cation.” I am spending some relaxing days this week with my sister and brother-in-law and trying to disentangle from various concerns that come with grief, moving, and preparing for the future.
But something special happened last evening I just had to blog about as part of our shared journey today.
“Stop Struggling!”
Last evening we visited some friends who have a large, serene, and beautiful place surrounded by trees, gardens, and a big pond stocked with fish. It is a sanctuary…a natural place of worship…a healing place. We sat by the pond and fed the fish. Their ten year old grandson was roaming around the pond with a net looking for frogs. It was like a Norman Rockwell picture.
A fish landed in his net! We admired it and enjoyed the fun of him making a catch which he immediately was trying to return to the water. But the fish presented a bit of a challenge as it struggled and flopped around in the net.
All very understandable. But when our young fisherman was trying to release the struggling fish and it was instinctively flopping around the youth stated firmly, “Stop struggling!”
Those words rung out into the evening air and went like an arrow straight to my heart.
I need to hear those words echo in my head!
I am the fish often caught in a net that tangles me up when I want to be free. How about you?
Two simple words. Sometimes the only way we can do that is to stop and say those words to ourselves when we catch ourselves in a state of negativity.
Solomon told me he thinks those two words for us today – sent by a child – are kind of like the stone in the David and Goliath story where a shepherd boy , David, simply trusted what he knew about managing wild animals. By using a sling to hurl a stone, he brought down the giant who threatened to destroy them and in so doing saved his people.
Maybe . . . just maybe . . . if we “stop struggling” today we can bring down the destructive and negative giants in our own lives and truly play freely in the pastures no matter what.
Solomon says thank you to our young fisherman for today’s wisdom. He approves.
Happy Shepherding!
